Next Kraftwerke Belgium teams up with Eoly and Vanheede

Sustainable waste management company Vanheede, sustainable energy supplier Eoly, and Virtual Power Plant operator Next Kraftwerke have teamed up to optimize management of the Vanheede energy portfolio. With its large shares of green power generated from wind, solar, and biogas sources, Vanheede is effectively a net-producer of electricity from the green and sustainable sources included in its sustainable strategy. In optimizing this strategy, the challenge was to create a contract for Vanheede that provided price security while also creating additional revenue opportunities from trading the company’s flexible power generation on the short-term and reserve power markets.

The solution was an innovative supply contract drawn up by Next Kraftwerke and Eoly. Under the terms of the deal, Next Kraftwerke acts as the Balancing Responsible Party (BRP) and is also responsible for power trading. Eoly supplies green electricity and works with Next Kraftwerke to market the production flexibility on the spot and reserve power exchanges. Tom De Vrieze from Vanheede: “This collaboration isn’t only about creating direct value with our engines’ flexibility. It is also about lending additional support to the integration of renewables.” Power production of Vanheede’s flexible assets is monitored in real-time, as are asset restrictions such as storage, fill level, and minimum load constraints. The dispatchers in the control center of Next Kraftwerke’s Virtual Power Plant, Next Pool, increase power production when prices rise and reduce production to save fuel when prices fall.

“We are quite fortunate to work with Eoly as the supplier. The modified supply contract allows us to work together and provide flexibility services to the client. This model is quite unique and represents a custom solution for a single client, but we believe that contracts like these will become standard in the future,” says Jan De Decker, CEO of Next Kraftwerke Belgium.

Author: Next Kraftwerke

Next Kraftwerke operates one of the biggest Virtual Power Plants in Europe. By utilizing the full potential of digitalization, the company networks more than 5,000 energy-producing and energy-consuming units in the Virtual Power Plant “Next Pool” with a total capacity of over 4,100 MW. Through its technology and trading, clients are able to produce and consume electricity when prices are best for them. By trading their aggregated power 24/7 on different energy spot markets the Virtual Power Plant also makes a substantial contribution to stabilizing the grid by smartly distributing the power generated and consumed by the individual units in times of peak load.